Typically, as used in pneumatically powered or combustion-powered nail-driving tools, wire nails having D-shaped or variant heads are collated by means of adhesively applied tapes or other collating media so as to form a strip. The shanks of the collated nails are oriented in a closely spaced, parallel relationship with respect to one another and, except at one end of the strip, the head of each nail overlies the head of another nail.
Various strips of collated wire nails having D-shaped heads are exemplified in Lingle U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,334, Leistner U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,526, and Shelton et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,042. Powers U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,582 discloses a die assembly for making a wire nail having such a head. Similar strips of collated wire nails having variant heads are exemplified in Juilfs U.S. Pat. No. 2,940,081 and Becht U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,459. None of the D-shaped or variant heads disclosed in the foregoing patents defines a complete circle when viewed axially.
For reasons of aesthetics and performance, it would be highly desirable to have a strip of collated nails wherein the shanks of the nails would be disposed in a closely spaced, parallel relationship with respect relation to one another and wherein, except at one end of the strip, the head of each nail would overlie the head of another nail, and wherein further the head of each nail would define a complete circle when viewed axially.